Salad in a Jar – SRC

Secret Recipe Club time, holla! There are a ton of us in this, not so secret club, now. It’s rad! I look forward to ‘reveal day’ every month to see all the fantastic recipes that have been made. And quite honestly, I also look forward to seeing who got my blog. Of aaaaall the recipes they could have picked, why THAT one? I can’t help but think that…

So then, why do I chose the recipes I do? What made me pick THIS recipe, of aaaall the recipes on Creative Kitchen Adventures, why a salad dressing??? I love salad, period.

After reading pretty much every tidbit on Denise’s blog I concluded she’s an amazing woman, mom and wife. By the way, using words like ‘concluded’ make me feel like I’m writing a paper for college…I digress… She does the best she can to feed her family well. And by well I don’t just mean ‘down home cookin.’ I mean well, like healthy well. I appreciate that, so much! GO DENISE! Given that, I decided I needed to make a salad. Ok wait, I did make her caramelized onion and cheese omelet too. But I scarfed that before I could take a picture. And her brownie cookies, I think I had a dream about them on Thursday night. Those will for sure be made in the very near future!

One of the great things about the SRC club is you can modify the recipe you choose. While I didn’t modify the vinaigrette, I did modify the actual ‘salad’ ingredients. I modified simply because well, I used what I had on hand. That’s all. Don’t think for a second I wouldn’t LOVE the spring mix with apples and raisins…do you know I’m like REALLY into raisins? I can’t be trusted around them,. I’ll eat an entire pack. And not the little snack size ‘I got my hand stuck because the boxes are so small’ size. I mean the jumbo bags from Costco.

A few notes on the dressing:

1. I added all the dressing ingredients in a blender to see what would happen. I mean, besides the obvious, it would blend. Duh. I wanted to see if blending it would prevent oil/vinegar separation. You know how at restaurants their salad dressings seem to not separate? How do they do that? Well, my little experiment shed light on their secret: a blender. At least for me, when I added these ingredients to a blender, cranked it up for only about 30 seconds, my dressing stayed almost 100% mixed for an entire week in the fridge.

2. My mom taught me a few years ago that adding water to salad dressings help save a buck. Add a little water, which is practically free, and it will help spread out your dressing for another couple salads. Th water isn’t 100% necessary, although, it doesn’t impact the integrity of the taste of the dressing and it saves a few pennies, soooo, it’s worth a shot.

3. You can add any ‘flavorings’ to the dressing. Roasted garlic, basil, shallots, onions…This is a great dressing as is, or as a base for adding additional flavors.

Layer the ingredients in the jar as follows:dressingonionmushroomstomatoesquinoaspinach

The most important part of the layering is making sure the dressing and the spinach (or whatever ‘leaf’ you choose) don’t touch. As long as they stay separate, these salads can be made up to 4 days in advance and will stay fresh in the fridge with a lid on. This is one of my tricks to eating salad everyday for lunch at work. I make a few jars on Sunday night and just grab one to bring to work everyday. When you’re ready to eat, just shake it up.

Remember the McSalad Shakers form Mc Donald’s? Now THAT was a great idea! Ever since then, I shake my salads.

*UPDATE (February 2012): Prior to this post pretty much going viral I hadn’t googled ‘salad in a jar.’ However, now I have. And WOW! There are some great other sites and blog posts about making salads in a jar. Some of which were inspired by this post, others were around far before this post existed. Someone else even drew a cartoon of it. It makes me super excited because that means more and more people are eating salads, HOORAY!

152 Comments on "Salad in a Jar – SRC"

woohoo! i love a good vinaigrette! Restaurants get salad dressing to say 'emulsified' by adding an um emulsifier… you can do this by adding mustard. a little dijon to vinaigrette? DELICIOUS and no separation… score! (even if just hand whisking).

I love the idea of salad in a jar (maybe McD's was onto something). These look perfect – and cute. I was dreaming about that savory cheesecake this morning and now these may be added to the list too. Bridal shower brought to you by Fat Girl in a Skinny Body.

As soon as I saw the picture I thought of the McD's shaker salads! This is a brilliant idea, esp for us brown-baggers for lunch during the week. And now I have a use for that plethora of quart mason jars around my place. ~Megan

That's not nearly enough dressing in the jar for me. I like mine drenched ha. I do love this idea though. I actually have seen jar salad a bunch recently. Maybe it's the new healthy trend? I guess I need to consider more seriously joining the src too huh?

Perhaps you are eating salad dressing rather than salad. I hate to see someone slather a grilled steak with catsup and other condiments. Are they saying the steak isn’t good unless they can enjoy a cup of dressing on it.

Carol, its her taste preference. Why do you honestly care enough to leave a snarky reply? It’s not as if the person “drenching their steak in ketchup” is force feeding it to you. Nor does it mean someone hates a food, they just like the combination of a condiment with it. We all have our own tastes. I wouldn’t criticize your condiment amounts because you’re not making me eat your food.

Now that is one beautiful salad! That would make tossed salads for picnics so much more of a viable option, which excites me – too bad picnic season is over. Sigh. That's okay – filing it away for next year – great pick!

Why have I ne rethought to shake my salad. I love homemade dressing. I will need to try your blender trick. Absolutely love your blog. I am going to make your granola this week , yum!! It was so fun baking from your blog. You have so much good food.

I loved your salad in a jar! The presentation and the dressing are just perfect!! Also loved your addition of water (I actually d this sometimes, but out of a neccessity, since I run short of store-bought dressings at times!). Happy to follow you!!

What a simple recipe–I'm stuck in a dressing rut (I use an Italian mix pack with my EVOO) so I'll try this one. I love your photos–so bright and cheerful. Did you know there's a blog called "Salad in a Jar?" (http://www.salad-in-a-jar.com/) How crazy that you guys do the same thing (though her method is different.) Out of curiosity…do the salad ingredients mix up when you shake the jar or do you empty it onto a plate to mix it up? (vraklis@yahoo.com)

I just found your blog via pinterest and I blog on blogspot also and I LOVE this idea for salads because I'm a Nursing Assistant so time is of the essence and I want to sleep as much as possible. I can't wait to start looking into all of your great ideas and thanks for the tip on Secret Recipe Club. Being an anti-cooker blogs help me see how easy it is to actually cook instead of being impatient and getting frustrated in the kitchen. Thanks for the idea and I'll continue to look on.

I love this idea! And the versatility of it… I can use any ingredients I want in the salad, whatever dressing I choose, and layer it all in a jar, with the dressing, and just shake it up at work for lunch. I just may do this very soon for my lunch at work. Great idea!

In regards to restaurant dressings, they get theirs to stay together by emulsifying (as mentioned by Kate). There are a few ways to do this. The hard way is to mix all ingredients except the oil in a bowl. Then, while constantly whisking, slowly stream in the olive oil. The easy ways are making the dressing in a blender or food processor (like you said above) or using Dijon mustard. I usually opt for the Dijon. I read somewhere that over processing or blending olive oil can have an adverse affect on the taste. So watch out for that!

A little tip on the science of salad dressing. A salad dressing is just an emulsion: small globs of oil suspended in a water-based liquid (or watery globs suspended in oil, depending on the oil/vinegar ratio of your dressing). Because oil and water don't mix, the oil globs stay separate from the water. The random motion of the oil globs in the mixture will cause them to bump into each other and combine into bigger globs, eventually causing the oil to completely separate. Using a blender means the oil globs will initially be smaller, so it will take a bit longer for them to coalesce, but it will still happen eventually . If you really want your dressing to not separate, you need to use an emulsifier – a chemical that forms a layer between the oil and water and stops the globs from sticking together. The most common emulsifier used in food is lecithin, which is found in egg yolks (and is the reason why oil-based sauced like mayonnaise and custard hold together). One egg yolk will emulsify several litres (quarts for you Americans) of oil. So if you want your dressings to stay emulsified, add a little bit of raw or pasteurized egg yolk before you blend it. If you don't want to use egg because you are concerned about spoilage, you can actually buy lecithin capsules (made from soy lecithin) at the drug store. Cut one of those open and mix it in with your dressing and it'll probably stop it from separating, although I haven't tried this myself.

I made these yesterday for my grandmother, mother, myself, and my daughter, and we all agreed your Salad In a Jar was a huge success!!! Thank you so much for posting this. I followed your instructions to blend the dressing and it was awesome.

Thanks for the idea. I found you thru someone's pin on Pinterest! Yay! I just tried these myself. I haven't tasted my salad yet. I happened to have most ingredients for a vin. dressing and the salad fixin's on hand. I have 4 ready for the week. I'll post again to let you know the results! How cool! thanks!

This is a great idea. I have a question though… what if we used a Food Saver to "seal" the jars? I wonder if they would stay longer that way? My Food Saver has an accessory for wide mouth canning jars.

This is such an amazing and easy idea! I'm going to use those tall Ziploc/Gladware containers instead of Mason Jars. Going to try to make my own salad dressing thanks to the recipe. I know if I have the salads already made and ready to grab I'm more likely to eat them! Thanks for this!

BRILLIANT!!! NO DRESSING CONTAINER!!! I have wondered for years how to maintain a certain number of small mini salad dressing containers in order to have salad at work (although, now I keep it in my hidden mini fridge under my desk…I digress) but with this you don't need it! I'll never forget the day I got to school one day and had pre-dressed my salad. Gross. Then I stole a burrito from the cafeteria.

Just wondering about the mushroom comment!
Over the top with this salad idea!
Made 6 jars on Monday and I’ve eaten 2!
Is my stomach quizziness somehow related to the mushroom tip?
How LONG can you store mushrooms in the fridge?
Don’t want to throw my delicious salads out!

@Janet
Well, mushrooms generally last about 3 or 4 days (a week tops) in the fridge, generally less when they are cut up. If they look slimy or dark, they’re past their prime, and need to be tossed. Ventilation helps keep them from spoiling (paper bags are great for storage).
As far as these salads go however, as far as safety: 1, you can leave the jar lid loose until transporting (which I would highly suggest for all the fresh ingredients) 2. The dressing is acidic (likely to help reduce bacterial growth) 3. You’re REFRIGERATING them, keeping them below 45 degrees.
Just think about “common kitchen sense” (washing, hand washing, proper cold/hot storage).
Take comfort in the fact that Botulism poisoning is rare; I’ve offered the CDC link for more info.

What a great idea! I’m just getting started with Mason jars.. can’t wait to get min in the mail (in Australia they are harder to come by). Love the idea of a salad in them as it’s summer over here. Thanks for the dressing tip too.. I would never have thought to blend it!

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I love this idea!! where did you get the mason jars and lids? I know you said amazon earlier, but do you remember what brand they are? i love the idea and want the exact ones just not sure which ones they are because there are so many.

LOVE this idea! A big part of eating healthy is PLANNING and sometimes there is just not enough time each morning to prepare the right foods! This is such a great idea! Can’t wait to try it! One question — have you tried adding some type of protein too? (like chopped egg / grilled chicken or salmon)

I made 3 jars to take to work with me. The reason I used 3 jars is that that is the number that the dressing made (the dressing is yummy although I will make it less sweet next time). The whole salad concept worked really well. The mushrooms marinated in the dressing. I think 3 days is the most I would leave it though. By day 3 the mushrooms were soft and I think another day would have made them over-soft. We have a microwave at work so I took a potato each day and had a jacket potato with some cottage cheese mashed into it. Yummy. I also had some left over roast chicken which I chopped into one day’s salad.

Adding water to vinaigrette is uncivilized, joyless, and most of all, it is a false economy unless you are very seriously dirt poor. I am quite poor, but I would never water a dressing.

Life is hard enough as it is without committing grave crimes against food to rub in how badly off I am. It would be gratuitous self-mockery. This is a mean and shocking suggestion that insults food and people.

The trick to having a vinaigrette stay emulsified without
Adding an “emulsifier” is to SLOWLY add the oil last
After the rest of ingredients while the food processor is running (you can do this with a food processor, blender, or hand blender.)

My name is Brooke. I am a student worker at The Ohio State University. My professor would like to use this recipe for her students. This is her request:
I am a professor at The Ohio State University and I am requesting permission to use a recipe from your blog. At Ohio State I prepare Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) teachers who earn an Ohio teacher license. In Ohio we have a set of FCS state standards that directs the teaching of basic food preparation skills to middle and high school students. The focus is on using simple cooking methods and preparing real, whole unprocessed foods. In addition attention is given to a plant-based diet while increasing the use of whole grains (other than bread), vegetables and fruits and limiting meat and dairy as suggested in the 2010 USDA/HHS Dietary Guidelines and Harvard Public Health. To this end I have been seeking and experimenting with recipes that meet these guidelines and that middle and high students may enjoy. I will use your recipes in the teacher preparation program and share them with practicing FCS teachers across Ohio as I promote and endorse learning to prepare and eat a healthy, plant-based diet. In addition, I am working on developing a FCS curriculum incorporating these and other recipes in rethinking how to teach middle and high school students to prepare every day, healthy food. This curriculum will be available on the internet and will always include the citation source for each recipe. I am asking for permission to reprint and make available online the following recipe: Salad in a Jar.

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A little about Julia

I'm a wife, mom, runner, recipe developer, freelance writer, peanut butter lover, and ice cream addict. I think the majority of the food I consume should be life giving; healthy, natural raw fruits and veggies. Which allows me to have room to splurge occasionally, and I take full advantage of it.